Snowbeast 1977 by Thomas Babson

This is one of those old made for TV movies where your imagination is required to fill in for where budgetary and script limitations tend to let you down a little.There is a pretty neat movie at the heart of this, a kind of Jaws at a Ski Resort during a Winter Festival. Instead of a Great White Shark we get a big white Bigfoot with a craving for ski bunnies.It has a pretty decent cast of fun to watch actors, with Yvette Mimieux kind of a stand-out, as a TV Reporter with a Bigfoot past, who looks quite fetching in her form fitting ski suit.You've also got Robert Logan, (he was a regular on 77 Sunset Strip and also the old Daniel Boone TV series), looking here like a TV stand-in for Warren Beatty. He's the fellow that runs the Ski Resort under the watchful eye of his Grandmother (played by Sylvia Sydney, who'd been hot stuff back in her 1930s film career, and stuck around for years and years as a talented character actor). In SNOWBEAST she kind of has the same function as the Mayor of Amityville in JAWS. After the first Ski Bunny 'disappears', with all signs pointing to a hungry white Bigfoot, she tries to cover things up. It's is the 50th Annual Winter Festival after all, and who wants to scare away customers?Of course the film's real draw, casting wise, is the chance to see Bo Svenson and Clint Walker in the same production. Both of these guys look to be about eight feet tall. Spoiler: although you'd expect these giants to battle it out War of the Gargantuas style at some point, that unfortunately never happens.Bo Svenson plays the film's main hero, a sensitive former Olympic Ski champion, the husband of Yvette Mimieaux's character, who has been in a rut since winning a string of Gold Medals in the '68 Olympics. After all his success he'd put away his skis because he didn't want anyone to think of him as a 'has-been' (70s era psychology I guess). Yvette Mimieux is clearly bored by this early on, a bigger issue for Bo, especially with the Warren Beatty look alike Robert Logan having some romantic back-story with her.Clint Walker is under used in the film in my opinion. He plays the local Sheriff (one imagines that any local bad guys have long since moved away out of respect for this colossus with a badge). He does (spoiler) get to deliver one of the film's best lines, after finding the first victim stuffed into the hayloft of an old barn (it seems the monster likes to store his Ski Bunny left-overs for later snacking, kind of like the giant Croc in that movie ROGUE), anyway Clint calls Robert Logan to the scene to hopefully help him to ID the body. Logan says "Maybe if I get a look at her face" and Clint deadpans "Well she doesn't have one". Great stuff for monster movie fans.One of the film's other big highlights is an Altmanesque (or is it Michael Ritchiesque?) sequence that features the Snowbeast making a direct attack on the Winter Festival. Sylvia Sydney takes a spill here that looks like an accident more than a stunt. There's a bit where we see the Snowbeast's face looking through a window that made me think of the gremlin on the wing of the plane in that old Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner. Cool creepy stuff.This TV movie was written by Joesph Stefano who'd previously worked on THE OUTER LIMITS and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. He might be best known for writing the screenplay for PSYCHO. Later in his career (post-SNOWBEAST) he would adapt the SWAMP THING franchise for a TV series.So if you enjoy TV horror films from the 1970s, and are willing to fill in some of the blank spots here with your own imagination, then you will likely find this to be quite enjoyable. It does have its faults, the wrap-up could've been more exciting. There were some very good opportunities here for a few last minute surprises (I'm thinking about Clint Walker's role in the film) that are unfortunately wasted.On the technical side I think the version(s) available via Amazon Prime have had their color pushed up a bit (remastered) resulting in a little visual harshness occasionally. You can find somewhat faded prints of this on you tube.Also there is another, more recent film with the same title, and what appears to be pretty much the same kind of white monster bigfoot, that looks like one of those SyFy films (not sure). Have not seen that one, but hard to imagine it's a fun to watch as this one was.

Retro Media released on Blu-ray this 1977 TV movie directed by Herb Wallerstein and starring Bo Svenson, Clint Walker, Robert Logan, and Yvette Mimieux, with Sylvia Sidney as the owner of a Colorado mountain ski resort that finds itself under attack by an angry and murderous yeti terrorizing the vacationers there for the winter carnival. Obviously inspired by "Jaws" this unoriginal film does benefit from a good cast and location filming giving it an authentic look.Looking good in HD, an upgrade over the barebones 2007 Synergy DVD, here including an audio commentary on the 72-minutes CBS Late Night Movie edit, and also includes the 88-minutes international version that is a bit better, though no commentary added on it.

Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) brought about a number of things, the first and foremost being an unprecedented level of worldwide success, the second being a few sequels (including one in 3-D), and last but not least a plethora of generally cheap imitations just itching to leech off the gravy train, in this case a lackluster, made for TV feature titled Snowbeast (1977). I should mention I don't necessarily mind Hollywood's continual cannibalization in order to squeeze every bit of profit from a premise as possible, but I do mind overly obvious, lacking in effort rip offs, such as we have here. Directed by Herb Wallerstein ("I Dream of Jeannie", "The Brady Bunch", "The Six Million Dollar Man"), the telefeature stars Bo Svenson (North Dallas Forty, Heartbreak Ridge), Yvette `Weena' Mimieux (The Time Machine, Where the Boys Are), and Clint Walker (The Dirty Dozen, Yuma, Killdozer). Also appearing is Robert Logan (The Adventures of the Wilderness Family, Mountain Family Robinson) and Sylvia Sidney (Madame Butterfly, Blood on the Sun), whom I best remember as the character Juno, the chain-smoking social worker in the afterlife from Tim Burton's Beetle Juice (1988).As the movie begins we see a couple of female skiers shushing down the mountain. One of them wants to turn back because she feels uneasy, but the other thinks she's being foolish...guess who gets it? Back at the lodge preparations are underway for the annual winter carnival, including the hanging of a banner stating "A day and night weeks orgy of fun and games"...well all right...Tony Rill (Logan), the manager, gets word one of his guests has gone missing, and he organizes a search party. After finding a bloodied and tattered ski jacket, the surviving girl relates a tale of how a monster got her friend. Tony's grandmother (Sidney) wants to keep things hush hush, as not to spoil the upcoming events. Soon Tony's friend and washed up former Olympic gold medalist skier Gar Seberg (Svenson) makes the scene with his wife Ellen (Mimieux), as Gar is hoping to land a job at the resort. I should probably mention Ellen is a television journalist, one who just happened to do a story on Bigfoot not too long ago. Soon the missing skier's body is found (sans her face), and Sheriff Cole Paraday (Walker) makes the scene. As the creature claims another couple of victims, Ellen begins snooping around, and Tony, the Sheriff, and Gar make plans to eliminate the growing threat (Gar the pacifist was against the idea at first, but after seeing the remains of the mutilated woman, he's all on board now). After an attack on a school gymnasium during the crowning of the snow queen (and yet another murder), Sheriff Paraday, Tony, Gar, and Ellen decide to head up the mountain and kill the murderous beast once and for all, but it ain't that easy as the creature is smart, smart enough to trash their camper and steal their weapons...the hunters have now become the hunted, and it seems like nothing, nothing human at least, is going to make it off that mountain alive...Snowbeast is pretty much what you might think it is, a forgettable TV made knock off whose only intent at the time was to capitalize on the popularity surrounding the films Jaws. If there was any doubt in my mind towards this, it was satisfied during one, particular sequence. At one point news gets around the sheriff bagged the creature responsible for the deaths. Turns out he ended up killing a bear (most of the population wasn't aware exactly what was responsible for the recent maulings), the intent being to put the townspeople and tourists minds at ease. Gar and Ellen happen to be on hand, and they have a good idea the bear wasn't the creature responsibly for the recent spate of deaths due to the fact they only just recently had a run in with the real monster. Gar suggests to the sheriff they cut the dead bear's stomach open, and see what it had been eating, as to verify if in fact it truly is killer. If you've seen the film Jaws, you'll recall a very similar scene after a large shark is captured. Oh, and let's not forget the cover up perpetrated to ensure the carnival goes off without a hitch and tourist dollars keep flowing...anyway...between the seemingly excessive amount of padding shots (skiing and snowmobile sequences), there is something of a story, populated by a lame group of characters. The script really isn't very good, and features some painfully forced drama, particularly between the characters of Gar, Ellen, and Tony (seems Ellen and Tony had a history before she chose to marry Gar). This sets up a really unintentionally funny uncomfortable moment as Tony comments on Ellen's beauty right in front of Gar, who can't really say anything since he's come to the resort in hopes of find a job. Another fine example of the excremental scripting comes when Gar finally relates to Ellen why he hasn't picked up a pair of skis since he won the gold during a not so recent Olympics...ugh (where's that damn face ripping sasquatch when you really need him?). Yvette Mimieux is worth hanging around for, as she's just as hot in the mid 1970s as she was when she appeared in the film The Time Machine (1960), but at a diminutive 5' 4", she must have felt miniscule among the cast given the prominent male actors in the film were all six feet plus (Logan was 6' 3", Svenson 6' 4", and Walker a whopping 6' 6"). Given the gigantism of the male leads, I kept hoping for a scene where at least one of them got into a hand to hand battle with the Bigfoot monster, but it never happened. There are a few, extremely brief shots of the creature, but otherwise everything else is limited to endless point of view shots, lots of growling, and ominous musical cues as the creature stalks its prey. There's virtually no blood anywhere to be found, but that not surprising given this was intended for television audiences (so much so you can see the obvious commercial break insert points as various scenes fade out, in blood red, no less). About the only reason to check this feature out is to see Yvette Mimieux in a tight snowsuit, but other than that, the movie is about as much fun as smacking yourself in the forehead with a two by four.The picture quality, presented in fullscreen, on this Legacy Entertainment DVD release is fairly rotten. It's grainy, muddled, and I wouldn't doubt if the original source here was a VHS tape. The audio, which is supposedly in Dolby Digital, isn't much better, as the first hour its very soft, almost impossible to hear at times. After an hour, it kicks up dramatically, for whatever reason (make sure to have the remote handy about an hour in, especially if you've got the volume cranked). There are no extras included, but there are chapter stops.Cookieman108

The Winter Carnival at Grill Lodge ski resort is about to start when a young skier goes missing. Her companion swears that she saw a creature in the trees. Tony Rill(Robert Logan) leads a team to try to find the missing woman, instead finds a bloodstained jacket, and then sees the creature for himself. He's eager to tell the police, but his mother Carrie(Sylvia Sydney), who also happens to be the Carnival organiser thinks that a panic will effect business. The local Sherriff Doug Parraday finds the womans body, hideously mutilated, but agrees that it should be kept quiet, the official statement being wild Grizzly on the loose. Also into the mix come jaded ex-champion skier Gar Seberg(Bo Svenson) and his unhappy journalist wife Ellen(Yvette Mimieux). As the crowds gather for the Carnival opening, will the beast strike again?.There are several effective moments in the film. The attack by the beast on the concert hall is well handled, as is the climatic hunt for the beast. The discovery of the monsters larder, a log cabin in the woods is also well done. Unfortunately, the viewer also gets a tedious sub plot involving a love triangle between the characters of Gar, Ellen and Tony, that takes up a lot of screen time, then goes nowhere with it, and theres also an annoying gimmick, that every time Bigfoot claims another victim, the screen turns red, blood red. Still, I found the film very enjoyable, maybe some of the enjoyment coming from nostalgic memories of seeing the film at an impressionable age on prime time telly in the 70's.The picture quality is reasonable, no extras on the DVD. 4 out of 5 for the film, 3 out of 5 for the release

I remember watching this as a child on television and having purchased the DVD and watched it again for the first time in probably twenty years I can confirm that it is exactly as I remember it. Perhaps tame by today's standards but it is a solid story and isn't just blood and gore as you might expect. Would recommend it to everyone as the beast itself is rarely actually seen and a lot of the horror you have to imagine which I believe is often the best way as seeing an obvious "man in a suit" can detract from a film.

Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. So I waited 40 years to get over it, before watching it a second time. Scared the crap out of me again.

This film was scary and you only see the monster in glimpses strong cast and full of action.

Wicked 80s family horror at its best x